SXSW Offers Lots of Sizzle – and Plenty of Steak as Well

Another SXSW Interactive has come and gone, and as the years have gone by, the annual technology-focused conference in Austin, Texas, has drawn increasing criticism that it’s a whole lotta noise without enough underlying substance. Andrew Bailey, CEO of The&Partnership North America, articulated this view in a recent much-discussed op-ed for Adweek.

Although those who work at ad agencies can have “a completely worthwhile experience” at SXSW if they focus their time properly, the festival is too often “a place where brands and agencies go to luxuriate in the glow of tech,” Bailey writes. “They go there to feel cool and seem innovative, but often very little of what happens there makes its way into their work.”

Bearing in mind that Bailey and I are in different lines of work, I have to say that I’m more convinced about the benefits of attending SWSX Interactive than he. Sure, the sizzle is there, often abundantly so, but there’s plenty of steak as well.

I attended the recent SXSW Interactive, which ran from March 13-17, in part to serve as a panelist in the “How Food and Drink Drive Urban Planning Today” session and came away with the following lessons:

• The Show Challenges Your Thinking. This can be hard to put a price tag on, but there is something quite invigorating about mixing and mingling with people from across all types of industries and from all across the globe, and that’s what happens at SXSW. You get exposed to a wide range of new ideas, and that can force you to examine and challenge the way you and your firm interact with clients and conduct business.

I was particularly struck by the many data visualization technologies that are now out there. Aggregating information and presenting it in ways that make it easily understood and that allow for quicker decision-making are so important, particularly when it comes to social media.

• SXSW Has a Growing International Presence. Brazil, Canada, Germany and South Korea were among the countries that had booths on the Interactive trade show floor to showcase their firms. Now, companies have the luxury of looking beyond the U.S.’s borders to find the vendors and partners that can help them meet their technological and business goals.

• Authenticity Is the Name of the Game. All throughout the conference, and especially during my panel, people discussed the craving customers have for real, authentic experiences. In commercial real estate, for example, that can mean incorporating a chef-driven, locally sourced restaurant into a mixed-use development instead of a chain. Formulaic is out.

In the end, Bailey’s comments about SXSW are not to be dismissed; he makes many valid points. Certainly, one has to work hard sometimes to find the real ideas, to separate the wheat from the chaff at the conference. But I find doing so well worth the effort.